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(From the American Anthropologist (n. s), Vol. 4, April-June, 1902) 



NEGRO COMPANIONS OF TH E SPANISH EXPLORERS ' 
By R. R. WRIGHT 

The fact seems to be well established that Negroes were 
introduced into the New World with the first discoverer and 
explorers. Indeed, there is evidence which leads to the su nise 
that some of the pre-Columbians may have been Negroes. Petet 
Martyr, a learned historian and an acquaintance of Columbus, 
mentions "a region, not two days' journey from Quarequa's 'erri- 
tory, in the Darien district of South America, where Balbo '^'le 
illustrious discoverer of the Pacific ocean, found a race of 
men, who were conjectured to have come from Africa and tc 'a 
been shipwrecked on this coast.'' In connection with this st.iL«'- 
ment may be noted a report by the Bureau of Ethnology which 
describes " early American pottery with physiognomies of decided 
African lineaments."' The late Justin Winsor stated in a ter 
to the writer that "there is a possible chance that at some uly 
time the ocean currents may have SA^ept across from the Ca;. iries 
and the African coasts canoes with Guanches and other African 
tribes from which some considerabl j strains of Negro blood may 
have mixed with the pre-Columbian peoples of tropical America. 
The skulls found in caves in the Bahamas seem to be very like 
those in the early burial places of t,ie Canaries." 

The good Bartolome de las Ca?as, the " Protector of the In- 
dians," is often charged with the introduction of Negro slavery 
into this continent.* It is claimed that he introduced Negro 



' The interest in this paper is enhanced by the fact that it is the result of research 
by a native of the race which took such a prominent part in the discovery and coloni- 
zation of the New World. — Editor. 

■' Helps, Spanish Cotujuest in America, I, [ . 360. 

■' Fourth Annual /Report, Bureau of Ethnology, p. 407. 

■* Helps, Spanish Conquest in America, ill ]>. 210. 

217 



2l8 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., 4, 1902 

slaves to relieve the hard-w. rked natives, and it is charged that 
" at one inauspicious moment ■: his life he advised a course which 
has ever since been the one biot upon his well-earned fame, and 
too often has this advice bee i .he only thing which has occurred 
to men's minds respecting him, when his name has been men- 
tioned. He certainly did advise that Negroes should be brought 
to the New World." " I think, however," wrote Sir Arthur 
Helps, " I have amply shown in the Spanish Conquest that he [Las 
CasasJ was not the first to give this advice and that it had long 
before been largely acted upon." ' It is said again that Las Casas, 
as early as 1498, with his father, accompanied Columbus and was 
therefore familiar with the companions of the latter and especially 
with Ovando, the successor to the Discoverer in the government 
of the Indies. It was during the year 1501 that Columbus was 
deposed from the government of the Indies, and he may probably 
himself have been cognizant of the fact that Negro slaves had 
been introduced into the new Spanish possessions. But there 
seems to be no positive evidence either way as to the great ad- 
miral's attitude toward the introduction of African slavery into 
the New World. There is a letter of Columbus in which he refers 
to Negroes in Guinea, and it is known that he gave an Indian slave 
to Las Casas' father, but all beyond this seems to be mere surmise.' 
/ The year 1501 is the date of the earliest reference in American 
history to Negroes coming from Spain to America.' Sir Arthur 
Helps, in his Spanish Conquest in America, states that, in the year 
mentioned, instructions were given to the authorities that while 
Jews, Moors, or new convert were not to be permitted to go to 
the Indies or to remain there, " Negroes born in the power of 
Christians were to be allowed to pass to the Indies, and the 
officers of the royal revenue v\ere to receive the money to be paid 
for these permits." * 

' Helps, Life of Las Casas, prefac e. 
• * Ellis in Winsor's Narrative and Critical History, il, p. 304. 
^ Helps, Spanish Conquest, I, p. 1I80. Irving, History of Columbus, ill, p. 162. 
■• Helps, ibid. 



VV 



WRIGHT] NEGRO COMPANIONS OF THE SPANISH EXPLORERS 219 

From this time forward Negroes were more or less familiar 
personages in the West Indies.' On September 15, 1505, King 
Ferdinand of Spain wrote to Ovando, then governor of Hispani- 
ola, a letter of the following tenor: "I will send more Negro 
slaves as you request ; I think there may be a hundred. At each 
time a trustworthy person will go with them who may share in 
the gold they may collect and may promise them ease if they 
work well.'' Some time prior to this, soon after he had become 
governor, Ovando had objected to the importation of Negro 
slaves into Hispaniola on the ground that "they fled among 
the Indians and taught them bad customs and never would be 
captured." ' 

In 1 5 10, according to Antonio de Herrera, the royal histori- 
ographer to Philip II, King Ferdinand informed Admiral Don 
Diego Columbus that he had given orders to the officials at 
Seville that they should send fifty Negroes to work in the mines 
of Hispaniola.* The next year, I5ii,the king complained in 
language like this : " I do not understand how so many Negroes 
have died ; take much care of them." ^ 

Again, on September 27, 15 14, King Ferdinand, in response to 
a request of the Bishop of La Concepcion, in Hispaniola, that 
more Negroes should be imported, said that there were already 
many Negroes and it might occasion inconvenience if more 
males of the race should be introduced into the island.' There 
seems, therefore, to have been no cessation, but rather a yearly 
increase in the number of Negroes sent to the New World. On 
his accession to the Spanish throne, Charles V granted "license 
for the introduction of Negroes to the number of four hundred." ' 

' Helps. Navarrete, Coleccion, i, p. 233. Herrera, Ilistoria de las Indias, dec. 
I, lib. 5. Irving, History of Columbus, in, p. 162. 

'' Helps, Spanish Conquest, I, p. 219 (Coleccion de Mufioz, MS., tomo 90). 

^ Herrera, Ilistoria de las Indias, dec. i, lib. 5, cap. 12. 

^ Ibid., Hist. West Indies, Stevens' trans., I, p. 374. 

' Helps, Spanish Conquest, I, p. 245 (Coleccii)n de Munoz, MS., tomo 90). 

'' Ibid., I, p. 491. ■> Ibid., I, p. 505. 



220 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., 4, 1902 

From this time onward the importation of Negroes into the West 
Indies became a considerable industry, and the monopoly was 
greedily sought by Cortes and more eagerly bestowed by King 
Charles in 1523.' There were sent to Hispaniola, 1500 (half of 
these males); to Cuba, 300; to Jamaica, 300, and 500 to the 
province of Costilla del Oro on the mainland.' By 1528 there 
were in the New World, according to Herrera's account of the 
Indies, nearly 10,000 Negroes. It is said that the treatment of 
the Negroes was injudiciously lenient ; they had four months' 
holiday.' 

In Honduras, in 1539, Francisco de Montejo sent a Negro of 
his, who knew the Indian language, to burn a native village.* In 
1554, in Peru, 30 Negroes accompanied a military force of 70 
Spaniards, under Francisco Hernandez.* In 1541, in Tolanite, a 
settlement in New Galicia, Mexico, the Indians killed a Negro, 
" de Bovadilla," perhaps the name of the owner, and robbed him 
of his cattle and hacienda — his establishment — and everything he 
had." On April 14, 1559, the cabildo or town council of Santiago 
de Chile, voted to grant a petition of one Tom^ Vasquez, a free 
or enfranchised Negro, by allowing him possession of a lot of 
land in the town, provided this was found to be vacant and un- 
claimed.' The wording of the record seems to show that Vasquez 
received precisely the same treatment as the white applicants for 
permission to settle in the town. 

On St Luke's day, October 18, 1526, Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon 
died. According to Navarrete he was among the first to bring 
Negroes to the present confines of the United States.* He ex- 
plored our eastern coast and attempted to found a colony at San 



' Helps, Spanish Conquest, III, p. 210 (Coleccion de Munoz, MS., tomo 90). 

2 Ibid. 

= Ibid., tomo 81. 

* Pacheco-Cardenas, Coleccion de Docunientos de las Indias, ir, p. 216. 
^ Ibid., Ill, p, 319. 

* Ibid., Ill, p. 37. 

' Coleccion de Historiadores di Chile, Santiago, 1898, xvii, p. 66. 

* Shea in Winsor's Narrative and Critical History, II, 241. 



WRIGHT] NEGRO COMPANIONS OF THE SPANISH EXPLORERS 221 

Miguel de Gualdape, since known as Jamestown, Virginia.' In 
this colony, under his successor, a Porto Rican, the Negroes were 
so grievously oppressed that they arose in insurrection against 
their oppressors and fired their houses." The settlement was 
broken up and the Negroes and their Spanish companions re- 
turned to Hayti, whence they had come. This ended the first 
introduction and the first insurrection of Negroes on our eastern 
shores. Thus Hayti, the place where Negro slaves were first in- 
troduced into the New World, was strangely enough the first to 
manifest an awful retribution against human slavery. It would 
be interesting to know what part Ayllon's fugitive Negroes, in the 
persons of their descendants, took in the dreadful revolution 
which swept over that island nearly three centuries later under 
the lead of Toussaint L'Overture, Dessalines, and their associates. 
A singular incident connected with Ayllon's expedition along 
this coast is the fact that he, with the assistance of his Negro 
slaves, built the first ships constructed on our coast. This fact is 
made more interesting when it is known that Vasco Balboa had 
with him some thirty Negroes who in 15 13 assisted in building 
the first ships on the Pacific coast of America. 

The introduction of Negroes into the western portion of the 
United States was about as early as the coming of the Spaniards. 
George Bancroft thinks that there was no part of the United 
States into which the Spanish explorers did not land Negroes. 
Cortes had with him three hundred Negro slaves in 1522.' Un- 
der date of July 19, 1 537, the governor of Mexico wrote : " I have 
written to Spain for black slaves because I consider them indis- 
pensable for the cultivation of the land and the increase of the 
royal revenue." ' Also Gustav Adolf Bergenroth, the collector 



' Ibid. [For a discussion of the location of the settlement of San Miguel, see 
Lovvery, S/ianisk Settlements within the Present Limits of the United States, pp. 448- 
452.— Editok.] 

- Ibid. 

^ Prescott, Conquest of Mexico, ill, p. 350. 

•• I'ascual de Gayangos, Calendar of Sf^auish State Papers, Col. v, p. 441. 



222 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s.. 4. 1902 

of Spanish papers, has shown that Negroes at an early date were 
considered and called the " strength and sinew of the western 
world." ' The Great Antilles especially had already been crowded 
with Negroes on the plea that they were sent thither with a view of 
r» facilitating the christianization, and to relieve the toil and suffering 

of the unfortunate natives'' ; but their advent into the western por- 
tion of America was fraught with a good deal of concern. Before 
1530 there were enough Negroes in Mexico to warrant an attempt 
at self-liberation from the Spanish yoke." Their plan was to 
massacre the Indians friendly to the Spanish, form an alliance 
with the others, elect a ruler, and set up a government for them- 
selves in the City of Mexico. H. H. Bancroft, speaking of this 
event, says that " the Negroes neither gave nor accepted quar- 
ter." * Their enterprise, however, failed, the ringleaders being 
betrayed, captured, and executed. In this connection there is 
another interesting story of the followers of a certain Bayano, a 
Negro insurgent captured and sent back to Spain, whose followers 
in 1570 founded the town of Santiago del Principe. 

There is, however, some reason for the belief that many of the 
Negroes imported by the Spaniards were not savages nor ignorant ; 
that many of them were nominally Mohammedans or Spanish 
Catholics. One writer mentions his Mandingo servant who could 
write the Arabic language with great beauty and exactness.' The 
Guinea or Gold-coast Negroes were bold, brave, and liberty- 
loving, as the history of the Pacific states will attest. 

Bandelier says that the most interesting period in the history 
of the discoveries on the American continent was during that part 
of the sixteenth century when the efforts of the Spaniards were 
directed from the already settled coasts and isthmuses into the in- 



' State Papers of Spain in British Museum, collected by Gustav Adolf Bergenroth. 
Revetus Enys to Secretary Sir Henry Burnet. Paper Col. Entry Bk., vol. xi, p. 82. 
' Winsor, Letter to author, July 9, 1894. 
^ H. H. Bancroft, History of the Pacific States, ill, p. 384. 

* Ibid., n, p. 385. 

* Bryan Edwards, History 0/ the British West Indies, II, p. 72. 



WRIGHT] NEGRO COMPANIONS OF THE SPANISH EXPLORERS 223 

terior of both North America and South America. It was during 
this interesting period that certain Negroes connected with the 
Spanish explorers rendered conspicuous service on various expe- 
ditions.' Mr George Parker Winship mentions, in his Coronado 
Expedition^ a Negro slave of Hernando de Alarcon who, in the 
expedition of 1540, was the only one in the party who would 
undertake to carry a message from the Rio Colorado across the 
country to the Zufiis in New Mexico when Alarcon wished to 
open communication with Coronado. 

In 1527, some time prior to Coronado's expedition to New 
Mexico and the buffalo plains, we are introduced to another 
Negro who was, perhaps, the most conspicuous of those who took 
part with the Spaniards in the early expeditions and discoveries 
on this continent. Reference is here made to him who was one 
of the four survivors of the ill-fated expedition to the New World 
made by Pamfilo de Narvaez who sailed from Spain, June 17, 
1527, having received from King Ferdinand a commission as 
governor of Florida, Rio de las Palmas, and Espiritu Santo. This 
is the best authenticated case at hand, however, of a Negro par- 
ticipating in exploring this continent. Estevanico, or Estevanillo, 
the Negro here referred to, was most likely not the only Negro 
who accompanied Narvaez from Spain in 1527, but he was the 
only one whose identity has been made known. That he was the 
discoverer of the Zufli Indians and of New Mexico is, I think, a 
fact now well known. It has often been claimed that Alvar 
Nufiez Cabeza de Vaca, the treasurer o.f the ill-starred expedition 
of Narvaez, was the discoverer of that country; but Bandelier 
has shown quite conclusively that Cabeza de Vaca never saw New 
Mexico, and that he was absent from the country at the time 
of the exploration of the New Mexican territory in 1539.' The 
evidence which this authority adduces to show that the Zufli In- 

' Bandelier, Letter of February 4, 1900. 
' Bureau of Ethnology, Fourteenth Annual Report, p. 406. 

' Bandelier, Contributions to the History of the Southwestern Portion of the 
United States, chap. iv. 



224 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., 4, 1902 

dians and New Mexico were not discovered by Cabeza de Vaca 
is, in the opinion of the writer, equally conclusive against the 
claim of discovery by any other man than the Negro Estevanillo. 
Bandelier's historical researches show beyond doubt that only one 
of two men can possibly be credited with the discoyery — Fray 
Marcos de Niza or his Negro guide and interpreter, Estevanillo, or 
Estevanico ; for a careful reading of his own narrative does not 
reveal any evidence upon which the discovery can be attributed 
to Cabeza de Vaca. 

The only claimant worthy of consideration against Estevanillo 
is the friar Marcos de Niza. Bandelier ably supports Fray 
Marcos' claim to the honor of the discovery, but this claim can 
certainly have no foundation except as it is based upon the fact 
of the guidance and information which Niza received from the 
Negro Estevanillo. While it is true, therefore, that Estevanillo 
disobeyed Niza's order to " stop and send messages," it is likewise 
a fact, supported by all authorities, that Estevanillo saw the terri- 
tory of New Mexico some days before the arrival of the friar. 
According to the information. Fray Marcos followed days in the 
rear of his ambitious guide. 

Later historians, in writing of this discovery, have not only 
ignored any right which Estevanillo, or Estevanico, had to 
the discovery, but have charged him with undue ambition and 
avarice. In writing of Fray Marcos, Cortes called the monk " a 
common impostor " and declared that he claimed to discover 
countries that he never saw. While it may not be proper to 
accept this wholesale charge, it is safe to say that Fray Marcos 
was too far in the rear of his Negro guide to lay claim to the 
discovery of New Mexico. 

Fiske, in his Discovery of America, writes rather slightingly, in 
our opinion, of this interesting episode of American history, lay- 
ing particular stress on the " illo " or " ico " in Estevanillo's, or 
Estevanico's, name.' Although it would perhaps be improper to 

' Fiske, Discovery of America , chap, iv, p. 500. 



WRIGHT] NEGRO COMPANIONS OF THE SPANISH EXPLORERS 22$ 

charge so distinguished a historian with flippancy in his reference 
to " poor silly little Steve," ' it would not, perhaps, be pretentious 
to suggest that the termination alluded to in Estevan's name does 
not warrant such a reflection on the man. Indeed, it seems clear 
that a fair interpretation of the facts related in Dr Fiske's work 
(ll, pp. 500-508) would warrant the conclusion that a " man [Es- 
tevanillo] who visited and sent back reports of a country," is more 
entitled to the honor of its actual discovery than one who, accord- 
ing to Dr Fiske's own statement, " from a hill only got a Pisgah's 
sight of the glories of the country, and then returned with all pos- 
sible haste " — without having set foot actually within the Cibolan 
settlements of New Mexico. 

Dr Henry W. Haynes treats Estevanico with greater justice. 
He says: " The Negro was ordered to advance in a northerly di- 
rection fifty or sixty leagues, and to send back [to Fray Marcos] 
a report of what he should discover'' "■' This the Negro did ; 
he sent back information that he had discovered '^ z. country, the 
finest in the world." It was Cibola, one of the long-sought-for 
" Seven Cities." ' Now, instead of giving credit to his guide, 
who had been killed in prosecuting his discoveries,^ Fray Marcos 
claimed all the honor for himself, and subsequent historians, if 
they have not sustained the friar have not placed the honor where 
it belongs. 

It is a pity that we have no connected narrative of this important 
Negro discoverer. An account of his connection with the ill-fated 
expedition of Narvaez in 1527, and of his association with Marcos 
de Niza in 1539, may be found in the various writings bearing on 
this period. But aside from these little is known of his early 



' Fiske, Discovery of America, chap, iv, p. 505. 

' Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, vil, p. 477. 

* It was called " Cibola " by mistake, this being the name of the seven Zuni set- 
tlements collectively. The pueblo o( Havvikuh, now in ruins near the Zuni summer 
village of Ojo Caliente, is the pueblo meant. — Editor. 

■• For the Zuni account of the killing, see Lowery, Spanish Settlements , pp. 280, 
281. 

AM. A.NTH. N. S., 4 — 15 



226 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., 4, 1902 

history. Estevan was born in Azamor/ one of the principal cities 
of Morocco, Africa, and may be supposed to have been about 
twenty-eight or thirty years of age when he joined the expedition 
of Narvaez, which sailed from San Lucas de Barrameda, Spain, 
June 17, 1527. With the first fleet were 506 persons. After 
landing on the coast of Florida they wandered through the coun- 
try, harassed by the Indians until they had lost all but 240 of their 
number; then, about September 22, they set sail, in a number of 
boats, in the Gulf of Mexico. Narvaez, as usual, proved a poor 
leader; misfortune befell him and his men. At the end of the 
year only four survived,^ — three whites and the Negro Esteva- 
nico. These four men discovered and landed upon the coast of 
Texas. They strove to keep together so that they might render 
mutual aid, but found this to be impossible. For eight years' 
they wandered among the savages, and it is evident that the 
Negro manifested fully as much tact and ability as the white men 
for self-maintenance among the savages and for exploration. 
Each of these unfortunate Spanish wanderers labored as a slave, 
and all finally became " medicine-men " of distinction among the 
natives. They are reported to have become so expert in healing 
the sick that the savages came from great distances to be cured, 
and crowds followed them from place to place." 

The black explorer was as successful as his white brothers ; he 
became familiar with the Indian dialects and characteristics, and 
the experience gained in these eight years of wandering afterward 
proved valuable to him. At the conclusion of their marvelous 
journey Estevan's three white companions left for Spain," but 
Estevan remained in Mexico, where he was held in esteem by 
those who were interested in extending the Spanish dominion. 

' Buckingham Smith, Narrative of Alva r Nunez Cabeza de Vnca, chap, xxxvnr, 
p. 123. 

^ Ibid., chaps. XVIT and xxxviii. Bryant and Gay, Popular History of the 
United States, vol. i. Bancroft, History of the Unitd States, i, p. 20. 
^ Herrera, op. cit., Stevens' trans., v, p. 105. 

* Smith, Narrative of Caheza de I'aea, op. cit., chap. -\xii, p. 74. 
' Herrera, op. cit., Stevens' trans., v, p. 105. 



WRIGHT] JVEGKp COMPANIONS OF THE SPANISH EXPLORERS 22/ 

Accordingly it was not long before Estevan was selected as 
guide for An expedition into the northern country, a selection 
which gave him the opportunity of his life. He evidently had a 
strong ambition to become an explorer and a discoverer, as is shown 
by the fact that he risked disobedience to instructions in order 
that he might be the first to find Cibola. The story of the search 
for this supposed El Dorado is most interesting, but it is sufficient 
here to say that though he lost his life, the Negro succeeded in 
discovering the famous "Seven Cities" of the Zufii Indians of 
New Mexico. 

The importance of the discover}^ of Estevan to his time, and 
its influence on the early progress of Spanish America, may be 
judged from the fact that various expeditions had been planned 
for this discovery, but had failed. Cortes had vainly spent nearly 
twelve years in trying to push an expedition into the northern 
country, and following Estevan's discovery there was a wild de- 
sire on the part of explorers to find the now famous Seven Cities 
of Cibola. Coronado longed to be the discoverer, and he did visit 
the country the year following the discovery made by Estevan 
and which resulted in the latter's death. Bandelier, who gives 
all the credit of the discovery to Niza, asserts that this journey, 
which he acknowledges to have been led by Estevan, was of the 
greatest value to Christendom, and to Spain in particular. The 
value of the discovery was such that we can only rightfully accord 
to Estevan an important place among the early explorers of 
America. 

It is not inappropriate to add testimony from Sir Clements R. 
Markham, the noted historian, who writes: "Owing to informa- 
tion brought to Mexico by Cabeza de Vaca in 1528 [1536], the 
viceroy, Don Antonio Mendoza, determined to send an expedi- 
tion to search for the powerful towns reported to exist in the 
north of Mexico. A friar named Marcos de Niza was sent in 
search of these towns. A Negro named Estevan, who had previ- 
ously served in the expedition of Cabeza de Vaca, accompanied 



\ 



228 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., 4, 1902 

Niza; and they set out from Tuliacan, on the Gulf of California, 
in March, 1539. Niza and his Negro companion met with a good 
reception everywhere. They crossed deserts and came to Indi- 
ans who had never heard of the Spaniards. Here they received 
tidings that in an extensive plain some days' journey to the north 
there were several large towns. Niza sent his faithful Negro 
companion alone, and waited for his return with news. Estevan 
sent back word to Niza that he had found the way to the great 
city called Cibola. Niza then followed ; but after a few days he 
received news from an Indian that Estevan had reached Cibola, 
but had been killed by the natives. Niza fled back to Mexico. 
This," concludes the English historian, ** is one instance of a 
Negro having taken an important part in the exploration of the 
continent. Estevan was the discoverer of Cibola," the territory 
of New Mexico. 

It may be asked, Why is it that this Negro's name has re- 
mained practically in obscurity for more than three and a half 
centuries? The answer is not difficult. Until recently historians 
were not careful to note with any degree of accuracy and with 
due credit the useful and noble deeds of the Negro companions 
of Spanish conquerors, because Negroes were slaves, the property 
of masters who were supposed to be entitled to the credit for 
whatever the latter accomplished. The object of this paper is to 
direct attention to this appar.^nt injustice, and if some one more 
competent will undertake a thorough investigation of the subject, 
the purpose of the writer will Lave been accomplished. 



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